Unable to override SHIFT-CMD-[ and SHIFT-CMD-]

[alberti42]

What Operating System(s) are you seeing this problem on?

macOS

Which Wayland compositor or X11 Window manager(s) are you using?

MacOS Sequoia

WezTerm version

wezterm 20240203-110809-5046fc22

Did you try the latest nightly build to see if the issue is better (or worse!) than your current version?

Yes, and I updated the version box above to show the version of the nightly that I tried

Describe the bug

Most likely I am doing some dummy mistake. In my configuration file I have a quite a few key bindings working. However, I was not able to override WezTerm default behavior when pressing CMD-SHIFT-[ and CMD-SHIFT-]. Below are just two of the recent attempts.

{ key = '[', mods = 'SHIFT | SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
{ key = ']', mods = 'SHIFT | SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane

{ key = '{', mods = 'SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
{ key = '}', mods = 'SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane

It works if I omit SHIFT or for example I replace SHIFT with CTRL. But ideally I would like to bind CMD-SHIFT and not CMD-CTRL.

If you have any idea what I am doing wrong or if this could be a bug, let me know.

To Reproduce

No response

Configuration

-- ~/.wezterm.lua
local wezterm = require 'wezterm'

wezterm.on("gui-startup", function(cmd)
  local screen = wezterm.gui.screens().active
  local ratio_x = 0.7
  local ratio_y = 0.8
  local width, height = screen.width * ratio_x, screen.height * ratio_y
  local tab, pane, window = wezterm.mux.spawn_window {
  	position = {
      x = (screen.width - width)/2,
      y = (screen.height - height)/2,
      origin = 'ActiveScreen'
    }
  }
  window:gui_window():set_inner_size(width, height)
end)

return {
  -- General options
  check_for_updates = false,
  adjust_window_size_when_changing_font_size = false,

  -- Font configuration
  font = wezterm.font('MesloLGS NF', { weight = 'Regular' }),
  font_size = 17.0,

  -- Colors
  colors = {
    foreground = '#ffffff',
    background = '#282935',
    cursor_bg = '#ffffff',
    cursor_fg = '#000000',
    cursor_border = '#ffffff',

    ansi = {
      '#000000', -- black
      '#c91b00', -- red
      '#00c300', -- green
      '#c7c400', -- yellow
      '#0226c8', -- blue
      '#ca30c7', -- magenta
      '#00c5c8', -- cyan
      '#c7c7c7', -- white
    },
    brights = {
      '#686868', -- bright black
      '#ff6e68', -- bright red
      '#60fa67', -- bright green
      '#fffc67', -- bright yellow
      '#6872ff', -- bright blue
      '#ff77ff', -- bright magenta
      '#5ffdff', -- bright cyan
      '#ffffff', -- bright white
    },
  },

  -- Cursor style
  default_cursor_style = 'SteadyBar',
  cursor_blink_rate = 600,

  -- Scrollback
  scrollback_lines = 10000,

  -- Workspace
  default_workspace = "home",

  -- Audible bell
  audible_bell = "Disabled",

  -- Tmux
  default_prog = { os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.local/share/zinit/polaris/bin/tmux", "-l", "new-session", "-A", "-s", "main" },

  -- Mouse configuration
  -- alternate_buffer_wheel_scroll_speed = 1,
  hide_mouse_cursor_when_typing = false,

  -- Key bindings
  disable_default_key_bindings = true,
  keys = {
    { key = 'LeftArrow', mods = 'ALT', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x1bb' } }, -- Alt + Left (Move backward one word)
    { key = 'RightArrow', mods = 'ALT', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x1bf' } }, -- Alt + Right (Move forward one word)

    { key = 'w', mods = 'CMD', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02x' } }, -- Cmd + w -> Ctrl-b x (new tmux kill-panel)
    { key = 't', mods = 'CMD', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02c' } }, -- Cmd + t -> Ctrl-b c (new tmux window)
    { key = 'n', mods = 'CMD', action = wezterm.action.DisableDefaultAssignment }, -- Disable Cmd + n (new window)

    { key = 'Enter', mods = 'ALT', action = wezterm.action.DisableDefaultAssignment }, -- Disable Alt + Enter (fullscreen toggle)
    
    -- **Override WezTerm's default tab-switching behavior**
    { key = ']', mods = 'ALT', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } },
	  { key = '[', mods = 'ALT ', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } },

    { key = '[', mods = 'SHIFT | SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
    { key = ']', mods = 'SHIFT | SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane

    { key = '{', mods = 'SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
    { key = '}', mods = 'SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane
  },

  -- Hyperlink hints
  hyperlink_rules = {
    {
      regex = [[\b(mailto:|https://|http://|news:|file:|git://|ssh:|ftp://)[^\s<>"\(\)\[\]\{\}]+]],
      format = '$0',
    },
  },

  -- Window settings
  window_background_opacity = 1,
  window_padding = {
    left = 30,
    right = 30,
    top = 20,
    bottom = 10,
  },
  window_decorations = 'RESIZE',
  window_close_confirmation = 'NeverPrompt',

  -- Hide tabs
  enable_tab_bar = false,
  -- hide_tab_bar_if_only_one_tab = true,

  -- Clipboard settings
  enable_kitty_keyboard = true, -- Enables clipboard integration
}

Expected Behavior

Switch between Tmux tabs when I pressed the key sequence described above.

Logs

No response

Anything else?

Thank you for the amazing terminal emulator! 🚀

[alberti42]

Update: I found a solution:

{ key = '{', mods = 'SHIFT|SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02p' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
    { key = '}', mods = 'SHIFT|SUPER', action = wezterm.action { SendString = '\x02n' } }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane

in addition I also had to set:

disable_default_key_bindings = true,

I do not close the issue as resolved because I think it would be better if someone looks into it. To me, it does not seem intuitive that I have to pick both SHIFT modifier and choose {/} instead of the unshifted version [ / ]. It is like if shift is counted twice.

Moreover, is there any way to make it work without disable_default_key_bindings = true?

PS: I tried:

{ key = '{', mods = 'SHIFT|SUPER', action = wezterm.action.DisableDefaultAssignment }, -- Cmd + Shift + [ -> Move to previous tmux pane
    { key = '}', mods = 'SHIFT|SUPER', action = wezterm.action.DisableDefaultAssignment }, -- Cmd + Shift + ] -> Move to next tmux pane

but it does not work to disable the default binding. It only works with disable_default_key_bindings = true

[jchilders]

You're going to have a hard time if you are trying to use wezterm and tmux simultaneously. I ran into enough issues that I just switched off of tmux and use wezterm's native tabs/splits instead. It's also easier to script, as well as faster.

I'm not sure how interested wez would be in fixing this; it's pretty well known in the emulator community that tmux's dual purpose window managment/multiplexer leads to... weirdness. This is arguable, of course, but given all the other open issues I wouldn't hold my breath on your report.

[alberti42]

I am beginning to realise how amazing wezterm is. I will probably be able to give up using tmux as a terminal emulator multiplexer once I take full advantage of all that wezterm has to offer. I must say that I am new to wezterm, so I am not yet using its mux features and remote connectivity. I still rely on tmux.

I should say that everything works perfectly well between wezterm and tmux on my setup. I pointed out the solution above, which works perfectly. I would like to point out that the solution is very counterintuitive. In my opinion, either we change something in the wezterm keybinding parser, or we add some documentation explaining how to override default keybindings that include SHIFT.

Also, I want to emphasise that the problem I pointed out has nothing to do with tmux. I would have the same problem if I tried to bind SUPER-{ and SUPER-} to other actions unrelated to tmux.